During a budget discussion Tuesday about the longstanding need for a new jail in the North County, Supervisor Joni Gray said the county should look into selling some of its more valuable real estate -- including the property it leases to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

“That’s the last thing we want to do, but we have to think about those things,” said Gray, who represents Orcutt and the Lompoc Valley.

Gray’s comment came at the end of a county Board of Supervisors hearing on a five-year plan for 233 capital improvement projects, only half of which are fully funded.

The $153 million proposal for a North County jail is the single most expensive item on the list. To date, the county has secured only a few million dollars for the project, enough to begin negotiations to purchase land from the Laguna County Sanitation District and fund an environmental report.

Mike Brown, the county’s chief executive officer, said in an interview Tuesday afternoon that the Santa Barbara museum leases its land from the county for $1 per year.

After the hearing, Gray explained that she had mentioned selling the property — to the city, not to a developer — because she wanted people to understand the severity of the jail crisis.

The state, Gray said, was talking about expanding the population of county jails to criminals sentenced to three years or less. County jails currently house only those sentenced to a year or less and those who are awaiting trial -- and the jails already out of room and overflowing.

“I’m really scared on this jail stuff,” Gray said. “Where do we get the money? We might have to sell the museum, we might have to sell a lot of things. We have to dig real deep.”

The jail proposed for the North County would have 1,500 beds. According to the budget report, the need for more jail space was documented more than 20 years ago and has been the subject of many county grand jury reports.

Population growth combined with tougher sentencing laws have created severe conditions of overcrowding at the main jail in Santa Barbara, where an average of 51 inmates are routinely forced to sleep on the floor. The overcrowding also has meant that many inmates are released early — more than 2,000 in 2005 alone.

“I’m trying to talk about how bad this is,” Gray said.

The final 2007-2008 county budget for capital improvements will be the subject of board hearings in June.

Tuesday, the board tentatively approved a list of 233 projects costing $855 million, from parks, trails and jails to health clinics, storm drains and voting machines. Besides the jail, the largest line item is $115 million for preventive road maintenance.

One project that is slated to begin work this summer is work on the Lake Cachuma boat ramp, helped in part by a very dry year. The project had long been deferred because the water was too high. Tuesday, the supervisors recommended that the project proceed with $2.6 million in state funds.

The Board of Supervisors tentatively approved a list of 233 projects, including work on the Lake Cachuma boat ramp. Photo by Christine Fancher / SBN

“We got the money a number of years ago, but we could never build it because the lake was full,” Brown said. “Now that the lake’s down, we’ll be able to build it this year. We can start as soon as the rain season is past.”

The plan at Cachuma is to rebuild the high-water launch ramp so that it will operate at all lake levels; improve the launch turnaround area where vehicles queue up; build stairs from the boat trailer parking area to the launch area; and, construct a launch for sailboats in one of the picnic areas. The project will cost $3.5 million and is $650,000 short: It is not expected to be finished until 2012.

In addition to the Cachuma boat launch, some of the capital projects that will likely receive funding in the 2007-2008 fiscal year include the Isla Vista Foot Patrol building, which is tentatively scheduled to begin construction in September, the New Cuyama Recreation Center, Santa Ynez Airport and Isla Vista downtown public parking lot.